Jessica Blough

San Francisco

masters student @ucbsoj associate editor @altajournal ☀️ once @asmeinterns @tuftsdaily @scoutsomerville @scoutcambridge @reportmorocco

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Articles

Sara Sligar’s “Vantage Point” portrays a cursed family

Jan 20, 2025 | altaonline.com | Jessica Blough

Sara Sligar begins her second novel, Vantage Point, in the depths of the ocean, as a character is in the middle of drowning. It’s a warning that we have entered a sinister territory. Then the scene shifts to land, where we meet siblings Teddy and Clara Wieland. Teddy, the older, appears to be the voice of responsibility; he became his sister’s guardian after their parents died. Clara has been in and out of eating disorder rehabs and has a history of drug use and hallucinations.
A Snapshot of Its Vibrant Melting Pot

Dec 18, 2024 | altaonline.com | Jessica Blough

If the state of California was made up of 10 people, 4 would be immigrants and about 6 would be people of color. The median age would be around 38. The state has one of the country’s most diverse populaces, with the highest percentage of immigrants—in 2022, they numbered 10.4 million people, or about 27 percent of the population.
Introducing Rachel Khong’s Debut Novel ‘Goodbye Vitamin’

Nov 26, 2024 | altaonline.com | Jessica Blough

It’s difficult to write about dementia without being depressing. Dementia pulls at the very fabric of what holds us together. It makes strangers of family and friends. It rips lifetimes away in stealth, reversing the passage of time. How deeply sad it is to experience this kind of loss—the disappearance of a life while still living it. The sadness, which may have different tones, seems remarkably uncomplicated.
10 New Books for November

Oct 31, 2024 | altaonline.com | Ajay Orona |Jessica Blough |Elizabeth Casillas

1AN IMAGE OF MY NAME ENTERS AMERICA: ESSAYS, BY LUCY IVESGraywolf PressIves’s essays address everything from her early obsession with My Little Pony to the American West and her uncle’s suicide. She thoughtfully brings together reflections about identity, family, and our current culture, offering nuanced thoughts on pain and fear and how they can transform into possibility and healing. The result is a powerful blend of memoir and criticism that leaves a lasting impression.
‘Violent Spring’: The Scene of the Crime

Oct 22, 2024 | altaonline.com | Jessica Blough

November’s California Book Club selection, Gary Phillips’s Violent Spring, is classic Los Angeles noir, full of highway drives, police and political corruption, and danger lurking around every corner. It’s also a snapshot of L.A. history, propelled by a period of the city’s past when tensions rose significantly and everyday citizens contended with how to make a place for themselves in the violent storm that was brewing.
Capturing Tobias Wolff’s America

Oct 8, 2024 | altaonline.com | Jessica Blough

Good memoirs can become a kind of history, describing a period of time through the eyes of an individual. Excellent memoirs can come to define such a period, or they can counteract dominant narratives of the time, adding dimension to history lessons. Tobias Wolff’s two memoirs, This Boy’s Life and In Pharaoh’s Army: Memories of the Lost War, create this kind of voiced chronicle.
10 New Books for August

Jul 31, 2024 | altaonline.com | Jessica Blough |Ajay Orona |Will Garrett

1THE DIVIDE, BY MORGAN RICHTERKnopfIn the glitter of Los Angeles, Jenny St. John fades from breakout indie movie star to fake psychic making ends meet. But when the director of her film is murdered, she becomes involved in investigations, disappearances, and a murderer’s mysterious motives. Worse: Jenny looks just like his wife, the police’s prime suspect. Richter’s novel is a riveting ride.
‘Women of My Generation Were Sold a Bill of Goods’

Jul 25, 2024 | altaonline.com | Jessica Blough

There is a generation of women, writer Sarah Manguso tells me, who went into their marriages to men believing a lie. This generation came of age after Roe v. Wade passed, riding the coattails of second-wave feminism. They believed that they were finally free from the confines of the home. They expected their husbands would share the burdens of child-rearing. They planned to pursue ambitious careers and vibrant creative lives. But reality held tighter to the past.
Four Letters, Opposite of East

Jun 20, 2024 | altaonline.com | Jessica Blough

Not long ago, Kate Chin Park did not believe she was capable of completing a crossword puzzle. It wasn’t that Chin Park didn’t think she was smart enough, just that her brain didn’t quite work that way. “It’s not that I didn’t think that I was smart—I knew I was smart. I was just like, Whatever it is that makes someone good at solving crosswords, I don’t have it,” she says. But she was long-term friends—and then partners—with a competitive puzzler, and with some encouragement, she caught the bug.
Voices of ‘Solito’

Jun 4, 2024 | altaonline.com | Jessica Blough

When Javier Zamora’s Solito, June’s California Book Club selection, was published in 2022, one thing critics repeatedly pointed out was the author’s distinctive voice. Zamora wrote as his child self to capture the harrowing events of his 1999 border crossing as a nine-year-old. Voice stands out in memoir when it generates a sense of intimacy between the reader and the narrative.